2003 News
US Davis Undergraduate Engineering Programs Rank High
UC Davis' undergraduate engineering school ranked 43rd overall among doctoral granting institutions - and it ranked 11th among publicly assisted universities.
US News
Posted: 08/27/03
Navrotsky Asked to Deliver Hassel Lecture
The Norwegian Chemical Society has asked Alexandra Navrotsky (ChEMS) to deliver the Hassel Lecture at the Department of Chemistry at the University of Oslo in May 2004.
The Hassel Lecture, which has been delivered by many well-known scientists, recognizes Navrotsky's outstanding contributions to chemistry. The lecture is named after Odd Hassel, who in 1969 shared the Nobel Prize for chemistry with Derek Barton for his contributions to conformational analysis.
Posted: 11/14/03
MAE Researchers Awarded Patent
Bahram Ravani, Ty A. Lasky, and Shahrdad Tabib -- all of the Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering -- have been awarded a U. S. patent for their invention, "Non-Contact Radar System for Reconstruction of Scenes Obscured Under Snow and Similar Material." All three researchers are associated with the Advanced Highway Maintenance and Construction Technology research group.
Posted: 11/14/03
Singh Inducted into the 75th Food Engineering Anniversary Hall of Fame
Paul Singh has been inducted into the 75th Food Engineering Anniversary Hall of Fame. Chosen for their "remarkable dedication and achievement" and "innovative, far reaching contributions to the food industry," the list comprises 25 entrepreneurs, food scientists and engineers including C. Birdseye, H.J. Heinz, J.L. Kraft, C.W. Post, D. Tyson, D. Lund, D. Farkas, C. O. Ball, and T. Labuza. Singh was cited for his research to "help improve product quality and process efficiencies" in the food industry and "contributions to research and education in more than 35 countries."
Posted: 11/06/03
Virtual Awesomeness
Wednesday November 19, 2003
By ARLEN ABRAHAM
Aggie Science Writer
When most people hear the words "virtual reality," movies like Lawnmower Man and "Star Trek's" holodeck come to mind. But virtual reality is actually something much more useful and very much alive on the UC Davis campus.
Professor Oliver Staadt runs the campus virtual reality lab, tucked away in Engineering III.
Unlike the flashy, psychedelic images seen in movies, virtual reality has a much more practical use as a tool for visualizing large and complex scientific datasets such as computer - generated simulation of physical phenomena, medical imagery and other complex visualizations. Often, these visualizations would be difficult, if not impossible, to work with in a two - dimensional environment.
In the virtual reality lab, there is a large table with a black frame and a tilted opaque glass top. A projector - attached to a computer - sits behind the table and creates an image which then bounces off a mirror and shines on the back of the glass tabletop.
To the unaided eye, the projected image appears to be a distorted double image, but in reality, the two images are being alternated much faster than the human eye can see. The resulting display is a stereoscopic image - two images which appear to be from slightly different viewpoints. Once the user puts on a pair of "shutter glasses" the image virtually pops out of the table in three dimensions.
Stereoscopic technology is nothing new. Scientists have long known that depth is perceived because humans have two eyes with a short distance between them. Each eye sends a slightly different image to the brain, which combines these images to give us the perception of depth.
You may remember a toy from your childhood, the Fisher - Price ViewMaster, a binocular - like device with slides that showed 3D images of animals, nature scenes or other pictures. But unlike the ViewMaster, the VR stereoscopic display dynamically reacts with the viewer. A small sensor on the side of the shutter glasses and an antenna mounted under the table detect the position and movement of the wearer and the computer adjusts the image accordingly.
While the viewer walks around the table, the
three - dimensional object hovering above it stays stationary.
In addition to the goggles, the user also wears a special "pinch glove" that
can manipulate the object. The glove has the same type of position sensor as
the glasses so the computer can react to the position and movement of the user's
hand. It also has sensors on the fingers that can tell when two fingers pinch
together. By "pinching" the object, the user can manipulate the virtual
object in a much more natural environment than using a two dimensional display
with a mouse and a keyboard.
One interesting application of this technology is design modeling. When designing a car, automobile manufacturers must build several full - scale clay models of the car. This is an expensive and time - consuming process, so Staadt is working on a program to make virtual clay that would have the same physical properties as clay but exist in a virtual environment.
" What we want to do is model the data in a more natural way and in order to do that we need to simulate the physics of clay," Staadt said.
Staadt's lab is relatively new. He came to UCD in the spring of last year from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland. Right now, there is only one working VR table, but he will shortly have a second, more horizontal, VR environment set up.
He is also in the process of building a seamless 16 - by - 9 - foot screen for a completely immersive, high - resolution VR environment that utilizes multiple projectors. The screen will provide the user with "an increased sense of presence" by covering the peripheral vision. Because this display will use multiple high - resolution projectors, it will allow the user to see large amounts of detail.
Another developing project of the virtual reality lab is a collaboration called blue - c. This will create an environment that surrounds the user on three sides with very large screens that can change from opaque to transparent. Behind these screens are several cameras that turn individual images of the user into a three - dimensional, real - time virtual representation. The screens, cameras and shutter glasses are all synchronized so that the user only sees stereoscopic images and the cameras only see the user. This means that two or more people in different parts of the world could virtually interact with each other in a virtual environment.
It would be as if they were in the same room having a normal conversation. In the future, engineers and designers from different companies could meet in a virtual environment. The engineers would see three - dimensional models of each other as well as the three - dimensional model they were discussing. In this way, multiple people could collaborate on a complex design in a virtual environment without ever leaving their offices.
Article reposted from the California Aggie: http://www.californiaaggie.com/media/storage/paper981/news/2003/11/19/SciTech/Virtual.Awesomeness-1315872.shtml
Posted: 1/10/04
Margie Longo
Professor Margie Longo has been selected as a 2003-04 UCD Chancellor's Fellow. The program was established to honor the achievements of outstanding faculty members early in their careers, with typically five to ten UCD faculty members being selected each year. In the words of the Vice Chancellor: "This honor was designed to recognize the best of our young faculty members. It is certainly a recognition of what they have accomplished so far in their careers, but, more importantly, it also speaks to their great potential in their fields, and to what they can contribute to the university in the coming years."
Posted: 11/06/03
Bruce Gates
The American Chemical Society has awarded Dr. Bruce Gates the Gabor A. Somorjai Award for Creative Research in Catalysis. Purpose: To recognize outstanding theoretical, experimental, or developmental research resulting in the advancement of understanding or application of catalysis.
Posted: 11/06/03
Brian Higgins
From the UC Davis School/University Partnerships Report on Woodland Community Education and Resource Center, August 2003: Davis School/University Partnerships has formed a collaboration with Dr. Brian Higgins to develop technology-based math assessments and quizzes that will accompany the tutorial process. Professor Higgins' interactive, online tool will give students infinite opportunities to practice the types of questions asked on the CAHSEE (California High School Exit Exam) as a part of their tutorial and has the potential to be scaled up to serve districts across the state. Here is how the program will work:
An online database will keep track of each student's performance (on prior CAHSEE tests, on daily tutorials, on pre- and post-assessments). Based on the data, the software will then generate a summary of the student's strengths and weaknesses and list the strands in which remedial action is needed. It will also list the items, for any given strand, that need attention. This could be an expanded version of the CAHSEE model's "Rubric to Determine Mastery". The rubric summary would then be used to benchmark the student's progress after tutoring.
Posted: 11/06/03
Gusfield Named Inaugural Editor
Dan Gusfield, Chair of the Department of Computer Science, has been named as the inaugural editor and chief of the journal, Transactions on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics (TCBB).
The new journal is being published by IEEE.
Posted: 10/28/03
College of Engineering Patents Mount Up
A single patent--for an optical network switch--accounted for 50% of the revenue that UC Davis patents earned in 2002. That was 8.8% of the total patent revenues for the entire University of California.
The switch, which was developed by a faculty member in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, brought in $8.8 million in 2002, up from $2 million in 2001.
Posted: 10/08/03
EDWARD
TELLER, 1908-2003
Edward Teller, who was present at the creation of the first nuclear weapons and who grew even more famous for defending them, died yesterday at his home in Palo Alto, Calif.
Teller, 95, was founder of the Department of Applied Science and director emeritus of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, having been instrumental in establishing the laboratory and serving as its director from 1958-1960. He was 95.
Additional information at:
"Edward Teller Is Dead at 95; Fierce Architect of H-Bomb" -- New York Times
"Force Behind H-Bomb, 'Star Wars" --The Los Angeles Times
"Edward Teller, 'Father of the H-Bomb,' Dies at 95" -- Washington Post
Posted: 09/10/03
Bruce Gates wins American Chemical Society Award
Bruce Gates (ChEMS) is the recipient of the American Chemical Society's 2004 Gabor A. Somorjai Award for Creative Research in Catalysis. This is a national award and the formal presentation will take place in Anaheim in the spring.
Posted: 09/04/03
John Brewer, Professor Emeritus (MAE) dies
The College of Engineering has announced, with deep regret, the death of John Brewer, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering. He died on 17 October, from complications from surgery.
Professor Brewer joined the Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering in 1966 after he finished his Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley. He was a valued member of the department's faculty.
A memorial service will be held on Sunday, October 26th, from 2-4 p.m. in the AGR Room at the Buehler Alumni and Visitors' Center.
Posted: 10/22/03
Sensitive PET scanner developed
Simon Cherry, of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, leads the research group that has developed a PET (positron emission tomography) scanner sensitive enough to use on laboratory mice. The device is already being used for studies on prostate cancer.
"We think it's the highest resolution scanner in existence. We can see things we couldn't see before," said Cherry.
PET scanners have become widely used in medical imaging -- alongside X-rays, CAT scans and magnetic resonance imaging -- because they can give information about metabolic activity in body tissues. The machines used for scanning people cannot see sufficiently fine detail to be used on small animals, such as mice and rats.
The current machine, called MicroPET II, can resolve a volume of about one cubic millimeter, or one microliter, Cherry said. That represents an approximately eight-fold improvement over an earlier device built by Cherry's laboratory at UCLA, before he moved to UC Davis in 2001.
PET works by detecting short-lived radioactive tracers that emit positrons, or anti-electrons. Those tracers can be attached to other molecules that are targeted to particular cells. For example, highly active cells, such as cancer cells, can be tagged with radioactive glucose.
Non-invasive imaging technology such as PET allows researchers to gain more information and to use fewer animals in experimental studies. For example, researchers could use an experimental drug to treat cancer in mice and see if the tumors were shrinking. Without methods such as PET, small deposits of cancer cells are hard to detect in experimental animals.
Cherry presented the work at the annual meeting of the Society for Molecular Imaging in San Francisco, held 15-18 August. The work has also been published in the journal, Physics in Medicine and Biology.
Posted: 08/28/03
James Shackelford wins Distinguished Teaching Award
Professor James Shackelford (ChEMS) has received the Distinguished Teaching Award from the Academic Senate.
Shackelford, who was for many years the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies, was praised for his ability to foster critical thinking, his tremendous organization, and his articulate teaching style.
Professor Shackelford also directs the campus Integrated Study Program.
Posted: 06/16/03
$2.5 Million Gift Will Benefit Engineering
Professor Emeritus Warren Giedt, founding chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and his wife, Leta, have pledged $2.5 million for a new lecture hall and classroom building for the benefit of the College of Engineering and the UC Davis campus.
The campus is providing matching funds to complete the estimated $6 million needed for construction. The new building will be situated directly to the north of Kemper Hall and will contain lecture halls and classrooms suited to engineering instruction. It's expected that the building will be complete in time for classes in 2005; groundbreaking will likely take place a year from fall.
Posted: 06/03/03
The College of Engineering is Delighted to Announce Two New Departmental Chairs
Norman
Tien became chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
on 1 July. He joined the department in 2001, after having served as
an assistant professor in the School of Electrical Engineering at Cornell
and as a post-doctoral research engineer at the Berkeley Sensor and
Actuator Center. He received a CAREER award in 2000. His interests
involve work on silicon-based microelectromechanical systems (MEMS);
his specific interest is in their application to micro-optical systems,
wireless communication (or rf) components, and biomedical devices.
Ann
E. Orel assumes the chair of the Department of Applied Science on 1
August 2003. She has been with the department since 1990, with a research
emphasis in theoretical atomic and molecular physics and computational
science. Before joining the department, she was a staff scientist at
LLNL and a research scientist at The Aerospace Corporation. She is
a Fellow of the American Physical Society.
Posted: 07/22/03
James Shackelford wins Distinguished Teaching Award
Professor James Shackelford (ChEMS) has received the Distinguished Teaching Award from the Academic Senate.
Shackelford, who was for many years the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies, was praised for his ability to foster critical thinking, his tremendous organization, and his articulate teaching style.
Professor Shackelford also directs the campus Integrated Study Program.
Posted: 06/16/03
FutureTruck takes second
The UC Davis FutureTruck team took second place in this year's competition (UW Madison was first). The team achieved first place for dynamic handling and for telematics. The team's Explorer achieved about thirty miles per hour.
Posted: 06/16/03
$2.5 Million Gift Will Benefit Engineering
Professor Emeritus Warren Giedt, founding chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and his wife, Leta, have pledged $2.5 million for a new lecture hall and classroom building for the benefit of the College of Engineering and the UC Davis campus.
The campus is providing matching funds to complete the estimated $6 million needed for construction. The new building will be situated directly to the north of Kemper Hall and will contain lecture halls and classrooms suited to engineering instruction. It's expected that the building will be complete in time for classes in 2005; groundbreaking will likely take place a year from fall.
Posted: 06/03/03
Former Dean John D. Kemper was honored on May 12th.
Former Dean John D. Kemper was honored on May 12th during a campus ceremony marking the renaming of Engineering II to the John D. Kemper Hall of Engineering. The naming is a fitting recognition of Kemper's fourteen years of outstanding service as dean of the College from 1969-1983.
The time during which he was Dean was a challenging one for the engineering profession as a whole; one of his contributions to the profession was his service for the Committee on the Education and Utilization of the Engineer. He was the chair of the panel on Graduate Education and Research. His service on this and on other national and international committees both increased the visibility of the College and the campus and provided guidance for the profession during a trying time.
He came to the College from a successful career as a mechanical engineer in industry, and he was able to share his understanding of the profession with students in the College. His significant experience in senior management positions in industry contributed to the reputation of College of Engineering graduates as having a strong blend of practical skills combined with a theoretical foundation.
He retained an interest in preparing students for their careers as working engineers. For many years, even while Dean, he taught the course in Professional Responsibilities of Engineers and originated a popular textbook on the subject, now in its fifth edition.
During his tenure as Dean, John D. Kemper was noted for his devotion to the campus and his College. His administrative talents were generally recognized. He was regarded by faculty, staff, and other administrators as being a man of strong convictions, kindness, and efficiency. Especially noteworthy was his clear understanding that the fates of the campus and the College were irrevocably intertwined.
Dean Kemper was an early and strong advocate of providing educational opportunities for students from groups and backgrounds not traditionally represented in the engineering profession. Programs begun under his leadership became models for the campus as a whole.
(Photo: Debbie Aldridge, Mediaworks)
Posted: 05/20/03
Keynote Address on the occasion of the XII Annual Unity Dinner - Minority Engineering Program Banquet at UC Davis, May 16, 2003.
Full transcript of the speech by Olivia A. Graeve.
Posted: 05/19/03
ITS Students Ranked for Dwight David Eisenhower Fellows
Three University of California Students affiliated with the Institute of Transportation Studies graduate students were ranked for Dweight David Eisenhower Fellowships from the US Department of Transportation. Belinda Chen (TTP) was ranked third in country; Deborah Salon (Ag. & Resource Econ), twentieth; and Emily Winston (TTP), thirtieth. Congratulations to all three!
The students ranked in the top 10 are given full multi-year awards, and the next 15 are provided an all-expense paid trip to the annual meeting of TRB in Washington DC.
Posted: 05/19/03
Rich Noble Wins Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award
The Cal Aggie Engineering Alumni Association and the Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award Selection Committee have selected Richard D. Noble (Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, 1976) as the recipient of the 2003 Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award.
Professor Noble is at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He plans to attend our commencement ceremony on June 13 and will receive his award at that time.
Posted: 05/06/03
Kyle Craig Pilgeram named University Medallist
The Academic Senate Committee on Undergraduate Scholarships, Honors & Prizes has selected Kyle Craig Pilgeram as the 2003 University Medallist. Kyle is a student in Biological and Agricultural Engineering.
The University Medal is the the highest university award given to a student completing his or her undergraduate work and recognizes scholastic excellence, as well as superior achievement in all areas of university life.
Posted: 05/06/03
Professor George Tchobanoglous will receive Clarke Prize
The National Water Research Institute has awarded the $50,000 Clarke Prize to Professor George Tchobanoglous (Department of Civil Engineering). The award recognizes the "demonstrated excellence" of his work in water science technology.
Posted: 04/21/03
Phil Rogaway wins RSA award for work on provable security
Phil Rogaway has, with Mihir Bellare of UCSD, won the RSA Field of Mathematics Award this year for their innovation and ongoing contribution to the field of cryptography.
For more than a decade, the two researchers have worked to provide assurances that cryptographic methods employed by implementers are secure. They co-developed the "random oracle" model, used as the primary paradigm for reasoning about the properties of cryptographic methods today, greatly improving industry understanding in this area. Additionally, their body of work also included the introduction of several major methods used in the field today, including Optimal Asymmetric Encryption Padding (OAEP) and the Probabilistic Signature Scheme (PSS).
"The RSA Conference Awards recognize individuals and organizations that spark new ideas and advancements in the e-security marketplace," said Jim Bidzos, chairman of the RSA Conferences. "With businesses establishing electronic security as one of the most critical agenda items on their list today, it's more important than ever to recognize industry innovators and provide a forum to exhibit the latest developments and best practices."
Posted: 04/17/03